927 Days

It seems like a long time ago that we put pen to paper and presented an application for outline planning permission for 24 houses on a site on the edge of a semi-rural village.  It was.  15 October 2013 in fact.

To say the site had policy difficulties is perhaps an understatement.   It was last used as a formal football pitch - albeit it in a poor condition, on Grade 1/2 Best and Most Versatile Land and lay outside the development boundary of the Village.   The Council plan had time expired but remains a material consideration.  

Council Development Management planners were open-minded to consideration of the application and were balanced in their deliberations and case throughout.  Their Policy colleagues were distinctly more uncomfortable about the principles and perhaps the precedent.   Our cogent arguments about housing supply (especially the need for early phase delivery in an emerging and as yet unadopted Local Plan), sequential approach to development in the village, the delivery and gifting of a Multi-use Games Area facility to the community as part of a masterplanned approach were all instrumental in securing a recommendation to grant planning permission. 

It total, the application has taken 927 days from submission to receipt of a decision notice.  Over 600 of those days has been taken up by the legal issues of the parties involve in drafting, resolving and signing a S106 Obligation in respect of the MUGA.   

All said a challenging application but we are delighted to sign off for the Bank-Holiday weekend with a phone call to the client confirming that his permission is now in hand. 

Pete